I'm in the process of moving, so half my kitchen wares are hundreds of miles away, and I'm trying to use up things in the fridge and pantry. Which is, of course, always where culinary experimentations gestate.

To that end, this morning I made:

French Toast Bagelsnote: there will be no measurements here, as nothing was measured.

Start by grabbing a couple bagels. If they're cold or soft, it might help the process to throw them in the toaster for a bit; bagels are thick, and take more oomph to toast than is probably good for the eggs.

Make a french toast batter. Use whichever one you like. I had eggs and milk to use up, added some salt and vanilla and a bit of brown sugar.

Get a cast iron skillet heated up, and some butter melted, slowly bubbling, in it.

Let the bagels soak up batter. They will soak up quite a bit. You only need to dip the cut side.

Throw the bagels in the skillet cut side down. Listen to the soft sizzle of future deliciousness.

Grab a smaller cast iron skillet and throw it on top of the bagels. If this skillet is also heated, that would be good.

Flip the bagels over when the french toasting is to your taste. Me, that's a sort of caramel brown color, with some darker bits, yellow peeking through the cracks. Pour any remaining batter into the holes of the bagels.

Get that other skillet heated. Lightly pan fry some banana slices in butter.

Once the egg in the bagel centers are cooked, plate the bagels, throw the bananas on top (they may be sticky and somewhat spreadable).

While either skillet is still warm, kick up the heat a bit, add a big chunk of butter and some Goslings dark rum. When it thickens, drizzle over top of the bagels. Sprinkle with a bit more brown sugar.

Enjoy with a cup of black tea infused with almonds in front of the computer, watching cartoons.*

Keep in mind, this recipe largely grew out of the fact that I only have a few slices of thin wheat bread on-hand, and not enough flour to make even half a waffle. Frankly, I would have been pleased with "edible", and am therefore quite happy to report that I achieved "damn tasty".

*this last bit is merely one serving suggestion. Another would be "enjoy with your partner following a night of furious monkey noises," but as this is not my current position, I can lay no claim to its gastronomic relevance.

I went with a time-honored breakfast this morning, something that my mom used to make for me because I have never really eaten breakfast foods at breakfast time unless someone else was cooking it. I find that much of it is too complicated for me to think about fixing before noon.

...and Mark Seifert had the right idea, here it is WITH a photo...though, for the next time, I'll resize it better. My options on flickr were this size or mucking huge.

Being that it's cold here, now, my pigmeat and sausage-type-product consumption is skyrocketing. I made this the other night, which is sort of a bastardized Portugese kinda meal...

Sautee chorizo or some variety of spicy sausage. I used my local co-op's chicken/garlic/chipotle sausage because it's delicious. Sometimes I throw some sweet onions in there, too.

Finely dice potatoes, and toss them into the pan about halfway through cooking the sausage. They'll soak up the delicious sausage grease and get good and crispy.

Towards the end, throw in a bunch of finely shredded kale. I know, kale sounds like rabbit food, but it's good, especially when you sautee it with pigmeat.

If I have a bottle of vinho verde that I haven't finished yet, I'll toss a splash of that in the pan at the end to release all the alcohol-soluble flavors and deglaze the crusty delicious goodness from the bottom of the pan.

Start by boiling half a large pot of water with two or three diced potatoes. Then de-stem and slice two large handfulls of button mushrooms. Saute with about a half cup butter until the liquid in the pan is greyish. "Make 'em bleed black blood!" Add mushrooms to the boiling potato-water. Toss in some onions or saute some leeks and add to the mix. Add about a cup of milk, let it reduce to the consistency that you'd like*or leave it on super low heat and forget about it for an hour or so, which is usually what happens with me*, season with salt and pepper to taste. Sometimes I blend the shit out of it, but recently I've been loving the little morsels of mushroom in their intact form.

Okay, Mark Seifert,that McDonald's food as pizza toppings looks icky until the cheese is nicely toasted on top of everything...then, perhaps it's just because I haven't had dinner yet, but I actually think I'd try it...once...maybe...

The Twinkie French Toast however, wow...sweet death on a plate, I think you're right about diabetic shock, Robb!

But who am I to talk? I had alcohol laced pie for breakfast this morning. A friend of mine is a brilliant baker and she made Mincemeat pie and Squash pie (nope, wasn't pumpkin. It tasted like pumpkin pie, but I think it was butternut squash) for a dinner party type thing we had last night. I managed to come away with some of the leftovers.

Though I don't think I'll be able to get my friend to part with her pie recipes, I will see if I can find some good ones to share...pie anyone???

Rinse the raw sourkrought under running water in a colander for a few minutes. Then soak it in water for about 15 minutes before giving it one last rinse, you want to remove most of the pickling. While soaking, fry up 4-5 pieces of bacon cut into small pieces. I cook my bacon really slow as to not burn the meat and consequently getting a lot of that fat to turn into grease. Put the drained sourkrought into the pan with the bacon and let it all sit a couple minutes at the medium heat you were cooking the bacon so that the bacon grease soaks into the krought. Peel the carrot and apple, and cut both up into small pieces. Throw apple and carrot in the pan. Cover the sourkrought with water and bring to a boil. Basically from this point just keep the water at a steady slow boil for several hours until the water evaporates and the krought is nice and soft. I threw in a nice pinch of table sugar and a splash of orange juice towards the end, about 45 minutes before all the liquid evaporated and it was done.

It is a nice sweet Sourkrought. I prefer kabasa, and a spicy cheese and jalapeno flavored brand was a nice compliment to the sweet krought. (Though it was my only choice at the deli today so it might just be a case of beggars can't be choosers.)

Oh man, I saw this thread and had to make SOME kind of pie. Lack of mincemeat at the store and energy at home meant that some improvisation was in order. Thus, Papaya and Persimmon Pie was born. Yum.

Six persimmons, gutted.One medium papaya, also gutted. You could probably keep the seeds in, but I didn't.Heat the fruit with a cup or so of water and half a cup of brown sugar. Bring it to a boil and stir it to get rid of the chunks. Let cool. Stir in a quarter cup of flour, SLOWLY, like you're making gravy. Then a bit of nutmeg and possibly cinnamon. Beat three eggs into the mixture, pour into a crust and bake at 350-400 depending on how you like your pie tops.

Crust details. I use margarine or butter, and flour. I kinda mix them together with my hands until it's right. Then I moosh it into the pie plate.

sorry, this is not a recipe, just a question. i ate kangaroo at Public in Manhattan. are there kangaroo farms in the US? there are other random animals like ostrich or llama. or, was this joey imported from australia? i'm hoping that there is some cross between a cowboy/goucho/bushman/paulhogan/butcher living in New England on a kangaroo farm supplying snobby restaurants with exotic roo meat. "roo farmer" would be a fantastic title on a business card. and, it tasted good.

@robb- Except for purposes of exhibition, kangaroo farming was banned in the US in 2004 because of poaching.

@Kinesys-I made chili tonight and I tried it with your suggestion of peanutbutter sandwiches and...Mmmmm, it was heavenly!!!!! Thank you for the suggestion!

@IsenMike-You are right, making chili is very much an "organic" experience. I had to make it tonight in order to remember what it is that I do and what I throw into the chili pot. I'll jot it down and post the recipe by tomorrow or I'll have forgotten it again...and I think I ended up with 3 gallons of chili which means I won't be making it again any time soon.

Fry up a mess of Peppers in a skillet with some butter, I.E a lot...any type you like...for my purposes spicy is goodAdd an onion or garlic if you like...it doesn't hurt anything

At the same time as the peppers are frying make a casa dia: Take a tortilla put it in a skillet that has been heated and prepped with melted butter, put in a layer of cheese, top with another tortilla, cook in hte skillet until the cheese melts and both sides are nice and brown

Also get some chilli, and have it heating on the stove

When the peppers are just about done, add a couple of eggs and cook the peppers into the eggs.While this is cooking it is good ot make sure you salt and pepper it to taste.

Assembly:Place the Casa Dia on the plate, take your egg and cooked peppers and place them on top of the tortillas, then top with chilli and any other desired condiments.My favorite condiments being Cheese, Fire Roasted Chillis, Salsa and Olives

@NecrosMmmm, I've had something like your recipe before. Good food any time of day.

I promised a Mincemeat pie recipe...I haven't tried this one out, but it sounds pretty close to what I've had.Mincemeat Pie Recipe

The recipe calls for 1/4 cup each of Sherry, Brandy and Bourbon...I think my friend just used Bourbon but it would definitely be worth the experiment to add the others.

Also, this calls for beef. I recommend taking the time to make a roast and then shred or at least chop it into fine little bits. Another secret is to use beef for only 1/2 the quantity of meat and a dryer, stronger flavored meat like deer for the other half. One recipe I ran across mentioned trying elk.

1) Take the Cream and boil it in a saucepan, then add the Tea Leaves, cover and let the tea steep for about 15 minutes.2) Take 1 pound of the chocolate and finely shave it and set it in a mixing bowl.3) Reheat the cream to a boil, and strain it into the mixing bowl with the chocolate.4) Let the cream and chocolate sit for a minute, then whisk together until a smooth ganache is formed.5) Let the ganache chill down to room temperature and refrigerate until it is cool but not stiff (2 or 3 hours), or if you are like me and lack patience refrigerate over night, and take out a few hours before you want to finish them the next day.6) Either use a pastry bag, or scoop out small amounts of ganache with a spoon, and roll into 1" round spheres. If you roll by hand you can coat your hands in cocoa powder to help prevent melting, or use gloves to lower the amount of body heat you transfer.7) Chill the centers in the freezer or refrigerator, while you melt and temper the last 11/2 ponds of chocolate.8) Make sure the centers are firm, but not so cold that the chocolate will break off and then dip all the centers in the melted chocolate to coat. I usually use a fork, and let the extra drip back into the bowl.9) Place the coated truffles on a baking sheet coated in wax or parchment paper and let them set.10) Eat and share your delicious creations with everyone.

Pour chocolate mixture onto baking sheet. Spread out as evenly as you can with a spatula, then put the waxed paper over it and flatten it out with another baking sheet, a cutting board, or whatever. You want it as flat as possible. Peel off waxed paper.

Pour on sugar / liquor mixture. Spread out even over top of chocolate.